Newport News School Board briefed on plan to expand early learning initiative

Newport News Public Schools is proposing to change some attendance zones… (Courtesy of Newport News…)

February 18, 2014|By Austin Bogues, abogues@dailypress.com|

NEWPORT NEWS — Newport News School Board members were briefed on a plan to rezone several elementary schools Tuesday night, in an effort to expand an early learning initiative.

Under the plan, students who begin kindergarten in September 2014 would move from An Achievable Dream Academy, Magruder Primary and Newsome Park Elementary School to Marshall Early Childhood Center. The change, if approved, would not affect current students.

Some kindergarten students currently zoned for Magruder Elementary would move to An Achievable Dream for kindergarten through second grade, and some children at An Achievable Dream would move to Newsome Park Elementary.

"This would only impact students who have never stepped foot in a school," school division Chief Academic Officer Brian Nichols said. "We wanted students to have multiple opportunities for (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning in Newport News."

School Board members and meeting attendees also were updated on the upcoming 2015 budget by Assistant Superintendent for Business and Support Services Mary Lou Roaseau.

The school division has a proposed budget of roughly $294.3 million that includes a spending increase of about $9.2 million from last year. New spending this year includes refreshing laptops for elementary school teachers, as well as the added cost of transitioning Marshall Elementary to the early childhood learning center.

More than 30 positions are expected to be eliminated via attrition, Roaseau said. But the division also plans to add 15 new teaching positions to deal with a projected increase in enrollment.

School division officials estimate the state will provide $172.8 million in funding for the 2015 budget with a local share of $115.3 million. The federal government will contribute $4.5 million and the division says it will receive $1.7 million from other sources.

Under the proposed budget, all employees will receive a 4.5 percent raise — and some employees may be required to contribute up to 3 percent of that increase to the Virginia Retirement System.

State law mandates school divisions deduct 5 percent from employees' pay by 2017 to the VRS. The divisions must also give raises to offset those deductions.

The school division has already implemented the other 2 percent, which means VRS employees would net a 1.5 percent increase in pay.

Roaseau told board members an employee making about $45,000 a year could expect to receive about $42 more in salary each month before taxes but after the VRS deduction was made.

Newport News Public Schools Superintendent Ashby Kilgore will present a draft of the budget in more detail on March 4.